LUCENA CITY, Philippines—Nine days after the first voyage of a roll-on-roll-off sea vessel to Masbate from the newly opened port in San Andres, Quezon, the missionary service has been forced to stop operation due to lack of passengers to ferry.
The reason: cargo trucks and buses have ceased patronage of the new pier because the road leading to it is in a bad state of disrepair.
San Andres Mayor Sergio Emprese said transport vehicles have stopped coming to the pier because a nine-kilometer stretch of road between San Narciso and San Andres remains unpaved.
“The road… was heavily damaged by heavy rains. It almost becomes impassable for heavy vehicles,” Emprese said over the phone Tuesday.
The port, a project of Quezon third district Representative Danilo Suarez, was opened in January this year.
He said all roads in Bondoc Peninsula highway have long been cemented except for the San Andres-San Narciso segment.
“It was not completed because of the change of the administration,” said Suarez, a known ally of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the current House minority leader.
The maiden voyage of the Starship Shipping Lines ro-ro vessel left San Andres port for Masbate last March 27.
However, on April 4 cargo trucks carrying products and buses suddenly stopped coming to the pier because of the bad road, according to Emprese.
San Narciso Mayor Eleonor Uy said she met with Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson late last year requesting for the completion of the still unpaved section of the highway.
“For your information, San Andres port which had just started its operation now ceased to operate because of the road condition. Gravel road is becoming hardly passable, aggravated by unpredictable weather condition,” Uy said in a follow-up letter to Singson dated April 16.
Since the concreting of the road would take some time still, Uy requested the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to have heavy equipment readily available for the continuous road maintenance.
Emprese also made a similar request to Singson in a letter dated April 10.
DPWH District Engineer Rogelio Rejano said the unpaved portion of the road has been included in next year’s budget for concreting.
“By next year, the whole stretch between the two towns will be fully cemented,” he said over the phone.
He said his office has also dispatched heavy equipment to the area for road maintenance work.
“But the road is passable even for heavy vehicles,” Rejano insisted.
He said there could have been other reasons behind the cessation of the port operation. He did not elaborate.
San Andres, 326 kilometers from Manila, is a fourth-class municipality located at the southernmost tip of the province facing the Ragay Gulf.
“Our port offers distinct advantages compared to other piers in Luzon in servicing the maritime route leading to the Visayas and Mindanao,” Emprese said.
Emprese noted that the other ports in Luzon servicing the Visayas Sea are too far from Manila compared to San Andres and thus, they spell additional costs for vehicle maintenance and fuel, and longer travel time.
Pio Duran port in Albay is is 495 km from Manila; Pilar, Sorsogon, 520 km; and Bulan, Sorsogon, 576 km.
“Sea vessels can also leave our port anytime, no low tide to worry because of its inherent depth,” Emprese said.
He said land and sea travel from Manila via San Andres to Masbate only takes 12 hours compared with an average of 18 hours of travel for the same Manila-Masbate destination via other Bicol ports.
A cargo truck driver admitted that the San Andres port was ideal for faster and economical movement of products and passengers between Luzon and the rest of the Visayas and Mindanao.
“We can reach Masbate faster. Besides, less land travel means less ‘tong’ for all kinds of checkpoints along the route, particularly along the Quirino Highway,” said the driver.
It was learned that Starship Shipping Lines planned to add three more ro-ro vessels to service the San Andres-Masbate route; San Andres to Aroroy, Masbate; and San Andres to San Pascual, Burias island.